With coach Ray introducing Burpees into the first week of training for the transformation group, it got me thinking….. the physical demands of adherence to exercise are experienced by all, beginner or elite athlete alike, and it reminded me of a time when I just couldn’t make myself exercise! (more about that later)
So how much notice do we pay to the psychological demands of beginning and sticking to an exercise programme?
Developing Psychological RESILIENCE
The decision to change our behaviour is easy to make, however, the psychological resilience to make these changes stick is another matter. We all consciously or subconsciously re-evaluate our behaviours to meet with social norms and follow ‘fad’ diets or magic exercise programmes.
The transtheoretical model (Prochaska & DiClemente, 1983) has been used to study the psychological processes for any changes we make to our normal behaviour. It has been successfully used to support smoking cessation, healthy eating and exercise adherence. Every time we make the decision to exercise, make the healthy choice at dinner or not have that first cigarette of the day, we are utilising our psychological resilience and ability to make informed decisions.
The model shows that we move through several stages. Pre-comtemplaters are those who are not ready to make the decision to change within the next six months, even though the pros and cons of the change in behaviour have been presented to them. Contemplators can be defined as those who know that the pros far outweigh any cons to a change in behaviour and will usually plan to make these changes within the next 6 months. Those in the preparation phase are considering taking immediate action and changing their behaviours with immediate effect.
entering the ‘action’ stage
Potentially the hardest step is to make the change. Given all the evidence for and against, following through with this decision can become the most psychologically challenging step. For the ten who have completed their first week at Southern Legion I’m glad to say that they have entered the action stage. The decision has been made and the action of following through with this change in behaviour has begun. Maintenance can only be achieved once the desired behaviours have been sustained beyond a 6-month period.
However, it doesn’t end there. Re-evaluation is required constantly: when injury occurs, work demands or stress in other areas of our lives strike, we need to build our psychological resilience to ensure our planned changes in behaviour are maintained. Sometimes we may find ourselves transferring from ‘Action’ to ‘Maintenance’ almost interchangeably, it’s important to understand that this is a natural process.
For anyone that knows me, I’m currently in a maintenance phase but this has not always been the case. In the past, work stresses have caused me to fluctuate between preparation, action and maintenance. For a significant period of time making the decision seemed second nature, I’d make the decision nearly every week. ‘I’ll start tomorrow’, ‘I’ll start Monday’. However the physical act seemed so much harder.
Set small, achievable goals
It wasn’t until I physically wrote down (or was made to by an exasperated fiancée) the pros and cons of a change in behaviour that I fully committed. I set myself some achievable goals and made the psychological effort to start small. I started with 3 gym visits per week. I didn’t measure what I did; it was the act of making myself go that mattered initially. I didn’t measure how far or fast I ran or how much weight I lifted, the goal was to attend and be active 3 times per week. Once I knew I could sustain this, I begun to measure what I was doing in each session, again setting some realistic targets.
The hardest part of all though, was that I’m a qualified fitness professional: I’ve got a degree in Sport Science and I was teaching young fitness trainees how to help someone change their behaviour. But I couldn’t seem to do it myself! This conflict made the psychological challenge even harder for me, but ultimately made it all the more important for me to follow through and make the change. I knew the benefits, I’d evaluated the benefits, I’d analysed the benefits, and now I needed to do it.
For those who are thinking about or have recently made the decision to become more active, challenges will arise, but remember the pros will continue to reveal themselves and the cons will continue to diminish in value.
Good luck to all those in the transformation group and to all fellow Legionaries.
Paul Stannard – Programme Manager: Sport, Public Services, Science and Maths at Fareham College
AKA Bridges
AKA Southern Legion Member, general annoyance, chief ‘overtrainer’ and now husband to formerly exasperated fiancée
It’s always a bonus when someone like Craig joins a Transformation group. He instantly puts everyone at their ease, chatting away to anyone about anything, and just generally filling the room with laughs and banter. But beneath Craig’s light-hearted exterior was a steely determined that this programme was going to change him once and for all.
